Bringing Kiwi- style retirement to London

ANew Zealand retirement village pioneer is now taking the model to Britain, writes Anne Gibson

here’s a Kiwi connection to London’s new £ 108 million ($ 184m) Battersea Place retirement village. The project, officially known as Battersea Place LifeCare Residences, has been developed by Guernseyregistered LifeCare Residences International, founded and chaired by New Zealander Cliff Cook.

He is a retirement village pioneer, li sted on the NBR Rich List with wealth of $ 400 million, founder of Metlifecare, New Zealand’s second biggest NZX- listed retirement business, and has more than 28 years experience in the sector.

He also founded and was an executive member and chairman of the Retirement Villages Association of NZ.

But he wanted more, so in 2004 he entered the British market, having spent more than five years assessing and evaluating it, “understanding the industry and market dynamics and seeking the best option and structures upon which to enter.”

LifeCare now owns three British retirement villages: the new Battersea Place — 108 apartments opposite Battersea Park, on the site of a former nurses’ home — and in the more rural areas of Grove Place, Hampshire and Somerleigh Court, Dorchester.

Londoners have typically stayed in their home for longer, then moved straight into a nursing home, or downsized into a smaller flat, but without the security, socialisation and care provided in retirement villages, or have moved out of London to a retirement community, away from family, friends and all the things they are familiar with in their local community.

This is what attracted Cliff to the United Kingdom, and London in particular, in the first place. Sold on a 150- year lease, which is the standard tenure in the UK. No rental option in our villages. From £ 535,000 to £ 3 million ($ 912,000 to $ 5.1m). £ 265 per week.

It was a very intense development on a one acre site and so it had to be built in one stage. All development on site is completed.

After planning approval, the biggest hurdle was getting the development funding, given that it was the first of its kind in London and so banks had nothing to reference it against, plus we were in the middle of the global financial crisis which impacted funding much more in the UK than it did in NZ.

108- apartment, £ 108m retirement village, opened in July Top- priced unit sold for £ 3m 74 apartments occupied by early October

20 more sold, residents moving in before Christmas

30- bed nursing home opening this month Patients to pay £ 2300/ month Owned by Kiwi Cliff Cook’s LifeCare Residences

It seems incredible that in a city that big, there are no others. There are so many here and so many being planned, we almost take them for granted in NZ. Do people own the properties or, like here, buy a licence to occupy? Can they rent a unit and if...

Do people enjoy any capital gain on their units when they are “sold”? Is your village financially like New Zealand villages, or different, and if so, can you explain? not, what are the total number of places planned?

At Battersea Place, apartment prices range from $ 912,000 to $ 5.1m. ( Below) Developer Cliff Cook.